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Kanye West Outshines Taylor Swift at MTV VMAs, Chelsea Handler Bombs

Nothing will rival the buzz stemming from last year’s MTV Video Music Awards, but as the follow-up show to the infamous Kanye West-Taylor Swift incident, the 2010 VMAs offered plenty about which to discuss. Notes from the show are detailed.

In terms of their actual performances, it is unquestionable that Taylor Swift’s 2010 MTV Video Music Awards number tugged harder on heart strings than that of Kanye West. It was an emotional ballad that gave the country-pop superstar purpose on stage; never has she looked more connected to and driven by a song, and that level of passion replaced the nervousness that often shakes up her vocals in live performances. Taylor Swift will never be Christina Aguilera, but this was not the kind of performance that will leave cynical music fans complaining about her vocal chops.

Yet for all the poignancy of Swift’s number, it is far from fair to say that she outclassed West at the awards show. West’s “Runaway,” with a chorus that included “let’s have a toast for the douchebags,” addressed last year’s incident without drifting into the “emo” mindset that has plagued some of his recent Twitter posts. He admitted his guilt and acknowledged his wrongdoing, but he situated his behavioral issues and mistakes within the confines of a bigger societal picture, rather than simply in the context of what happened in September 2009.

With that mindset, West found a way to atone for his “sins” without restricting himself to playing off the Taylor Swift incident for greater publicity. “Runaway” offers greater societal messages about the tendency to chase and offer negative qualities, and it thus reflects the fact that West underwent clear introspection–simply hearing “I forgive you” from Taylor Swift would not be enough for absolution.

The fact that West delivered such a personal, yet relatable message in an exaggerated, comedic manner (toasting for “douchebags,” “assholes,” “scumbags” and “jerkoffs”) complemented the words immensely, as it was reflective of the lyrical architecture that has defined West since his rise to stardom. Humor was also much appreciated, given how intently host Chelsea Handler tried to murder comedy over the course of the broadcast.

Obviously, some will question whether it is fair to credit West for “looking past” an incident that he caused. Taylor Swift, it will be argued, is the victim, and it is thus up to her to determine the proper emotional response to what happened on the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards stage.

That is undoubtedly true, but Swift has sacrificed some credibility and authority on the matter by offering an unclear reaction to West’s initial behavior and then attempts at making amends. Taylor Swift’s greatest strength as a songwriter is her willingness to speak honestly and wear her heart on her sleeve, and her tendency to offer mixed messages on the Kanye West issues comes as an unwelcome departure from what makes her so appealing.

Swift had never seemed too personally heartbroken by what happened and had even joked about the incident in a “Saturday Night Live” performance. Given that reaction, when news broke that Swift was performing a song about Kanye West at the VMAs this year, the assumption was that it would be a light-hearted affair (possibly involving Kanye) that remarked the “freak out” was for nothing.

But it was clear from the performance Sunday that the incident did mean something to her. And there is no reason why that is wrong or blameworthy; she was openly disrespected on national television, and she has every right to be furious about what happened. Playing it off as a non-issue in interviews and then addressing it on-stage with the most hauntingly affected performance of her career, however, is a bit more suspect. You cannot act as if you are so over the incident yet turnaround and reveal the profoundly emotional impact it had on your songwriting.

Moreover, while it seemed from the early lyrics (including the reference to “lunchbox dates”) that the song was going to be an introspective study about her own loss of innocence following the incident, later references made it obvious that Swift was instead (or at least also) singing about West. She was declaring that he, in fact, was still an innocent. That he could still be growing up at 32. For the record, she is presently 20 and was 19 at the time of the incident.

And that gets to the heart of the problem with Swift’s song. It is rarely fair to hold one’s age against his ability to pursue certain avenues of songwriting, but the age issue is an appropriate part of a bigger criticism about the focus of the songwriting on this track. Yes, Swift is forgiving West, but she is also adopting a patronizing tone towards his attitude and behavior. She is no longer simply judging whether she can move forward and accept Kanye’s apology; instead, she is judging the character of his actions and determining that even though he did something wrong and immature, he can still be innocent. Instead of keeping the song about her journey, she openly judges his actions. Simply giving an “it happens to the best of us” vibe does not change the fact that she is accusing something “bad” of happening–she is judging Kanye for a wrongdoing.

Real forgiveness is not supposed to come with a “judging” complication. It is not, “Yeah, it was a douchey move, but I don’t think you’re a terrible person.” It is, “I want to put our past animosity aside and move forward.” Swift might want to move forward, but she also felt the need to make it clear that Kanye West acted incorrectly last September. She wants to make it clear that even though she’s only 20, she feels Kanye West was not demonstrating maturity coherent with his age and thus has growing up to do. She wants to make it clear that even though SHE believes Kanye West can still be viewed as an “innocent” for what he did.

Real forgiveness is about extending your hand and asking the person to join you; it is not requiring them to walk the gauntlet prior to regaining your trust and respect.

Again, no one is faulting Taylor Swift for singing openly about how she feels. In fact, any music fan should be thanking her for carrying that particular emotional reaction, as it made for a showstopping and touching musical performance. But there is fault in writing off the issue and “taking the high road” in one instance, and then patronizingly judging the wrongdoer in another.

Adding insult to injury is the assumption that Swift played at least some role in nixing an on-air encounter between the two artists. It has not been confirmed, but as West seemed willing (he even wrote a song for Swift to perform) and MTV would have been insane not to attempt to arrange that encounter, it seems reasonable to assume she was not wild about the idea. And while Swift can be respected for not wanting to give additional publicity to the man who humiliated her on television, she should be honest about that. The speaking out of both sides of the mouth shtick just does not work here.

— Chelsea Handler was a disaster as host and undoubtedly set female comedians years back when it comes to having prominent roles in entertainment functions. Between the unnecessary vulgarity (save for Andrew Dice Clay, what male entertainer would non-chalantly offer the equivalent of wanting to “ride” Joe Manganiello’s face?), the horribly ineffective celebrity riffs and the absence of any poise and ability to keep the show flowing, Handler was simply embarrassing. She absolutely has been funny in other media, but she achieved no success converting her act to the MTV awards show realm and had no business being part of this broadcast.

Having seen what Jimmy Fallon, a frequently-panned member of the comedy community, accomplished as host of the Emmys two weeks ago, how could a performance like Handler’s be viewed as tolerable?

— Beyond Chelsea Handler’s horrific hosting effort, there was an overarching absence of comedy. Few comedians did anything on stage. There were no memorable, “laugh out loud” skits. Besides the Kanye and Taylor performances, what else would people want to catch on YouTube or DVR?

— Nothing particularly stood out about the performances. Eminem’s exaggerated facial expressions (and Rihanna’s shaky vocals) rendered the first performance ineffective. Acknowledging Justin Bieber’s lack of presence or believability as a “sex symbol” makes getting into a discussion of his talent seem like cruel and unusual punishment to the poor kid. Linkin Park deserves credit for changing the sound up slightly for “The Catalyst,” but the band just is not fantastic to watch live. Flrorence + The Machine did a solid job, but the performance (and song) was a bit too low-key to guarantee a major, long-term impact. The other performances were just by-the-numbers MTV showings; no one did anything to get people talking (besides Kanye West and Taylor Swift, but anything they did would have made headlines).

Written by Brian Cantor

Brian Cantor is the editor-in-chief for Headline Planet. He has been a leading reporter in the music, movie, television and sporting spaces since 2002.

Brian's reporting has been cited by major websites like BuzzFeed, Billboard, the New Yorker and The Fader -- and shared by celebrities like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj.

Contact Brian at brian.cantor[at]headlineplanet.com.

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  1. Taylor Swift should write a song thanking Kanye West for her newfound publicity. Show of hands (who wasn’t 13-15 yrs. old or listened to country music) who had heard of Taylor Swift before the ‘incident’? Enough of the victim thing already.

  2. Chelsea Handler is funny and she was great!! what did anyone expect her to do she was chosen because she is harsh on her show shes a comic what did you expect!!! lighten up you critics cant take a joke. Lady Gaga knew Chelsea was joking when she mocked her…. get over it!!!!! Who would have been your choice to host Hugh Downs ???? It is the Vmas not meet the press.

  3. Chelsea’s problem was not that she was too harsh (although some of the racist and sexual comments were far more gross and offensive than comedic), it was that she was not funny. The Lady Gaga thing got virtually no reaction, nor did much of what she said (Justin Bieber seeing a vagina, for instance). The celebrity riffs were either dated, obvious or thrown together–there was not anything subtle or clever (see, for instance, how Jimmy Fallon addressed the Conan situation at the Emmys).

    Watching that rant about “being bad” was like watching an execution on stage. She was quite literally dying out there trying to encourage people to misbehave (no one seemed to want to). The fact that Taylor Swift wasn’t available for the camera to pick up only made that segment more of a trainwreck.

    I didn’t like Russell Brand in this role, but he was leagues better than Chelsea Handler. Fallon proved he’s come a long way since the last time he made a big MTV appearance–he’d be good as well. Chris Rock was always funny. Even Aziz Ansari, who didn’t do all that much at the Movie Awards this summer, was still better than what we got here. There are plenty of young funny people who could have done a better job.

  4. I raise a toast to the greatest douchebag in America, aka Kanye West, an adolescent posing as a man who appeals to the lowest common denominator mentality.

    I don’t blame Kanye for being a sub-literate talentless douchebag. After all, he was born to be the living joke he happens to be. Instead, I blame the brain dead and immoral music biz for promoting this kind of douchebag rather than others who actually know how to create REAL music with intelligent lyrics.

    Nor am I racist, since I believe that the white trailer park trash aka Eminem is equally terrible as a singer/songwriter. Every little jingle he creates sounds the same: hostile and frustrated. He is truly one of the most tiresome performers out there, only appealing to masochistic bimbos who think cute is a substitute for talent.

    As for Taylor Swift, she is no more than the current pretty airhead babe for zit-faced young boys, and nobody realistically can expect more from her.

    Then, of course, you have Chelsea Drunkly, a crude obscene and witless alcoholic whose “jokes” are born of the gutter, certainly not from any kind of smart perspectives on life.

    Meanwhile, the music biz deteriorates from year to year, and they wonder why people do NOT wish to buy their CD’s anymore or watch their excessive number of narcissistic award shows. LOL

  5. Taylor Swift has class and talent … Kanye West is a no talent, low class, ghetto thug who should have never been allowed back on stage at any awards show. To those who think that Kanye’s disrespectful, rude interruption of the 2009 awards was some how beneficial to Taylor’s career … you are so full of it. Taylor Swift was doing fantastic before the idiot tried to put her down and she will soar in the future because, unlike Kanye West, she is a great person and she has real talent.

  6. Chelsea Handler WAS the worst VMA show ever. Awful and awfully crude and downright disgusting. Filthy. Oh, and not funny.

  7. Chelsea Handler was the best host ever for the vmas but the audience in the nokia treather was the worst!!!! MTV should be back selling tickets for the award show like in the earlys 2000s So people that actually cares about the Vmas could be there and not just people invited by MTV other than the stars!!!
    Chelsea Handler VMAs 2011!!!!!

  8. Chelsea Handler wasn’t as funny as she could have been. I love her show and I love her, but she relied on sex and black rappers to be funny. Kanye West and Taylor Swift’s acts were the two things that gave this year’s VMA’s rating, and I won’t deny it, I tuned in to watch my favorite late night show host, Chelsea Handler.

  9. lol @ Cynical Ray….i know we’re all entitled to our own opinions but i get the feeling that Mr. Cynical Ray has never bothered to listen to one song written by Knaye West which didnt make its way to the radio

    i also find it funny (not to mention typical) that when claiming not to be racist he points out Eminem (shock!)

    it pretty clear you arent a fan of rap music…so go ahead and say so if you’re gonna be cynical than give your honnest opinion not your “hidden truth” honnest opinion

    i also find it funny that this cynical Ray is on his computer taking the time to type this out and yet calls mr West a “sub-literate” (because you’ve obviously had many conversations with him) talentless (this is a man who writes AND produces his own songs) Douchebag (finally got one right lol)

    so Congrats Mr. Cynical Ray you’ve clearly proven to be a superior breed of human who rarely (if ever) makes a mistake

    as for Chelsea Handler i thought she was pretty funny its just that her jokes well….not for MTV….she claimed to have done her homework but the one thing she should have known without doing any homework was the general MTV demographic

  10. 3 questions and a comment about this article:

    1) Who the hell is Brian Cantor?
    2) Who gave him a speaking part in this world?
    3) What makes him think his opinion is worth writing, much less reading?

    Comment: This guy knows absolutely nothing, or less.

  11. yea kanye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! put that little talentless girl in her shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!lmao taylor swift was BEGGING for that ever since she started singing

    KANYE WEST FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12. Chelsea Handler was so bad she was cringe- worthy. She’s just mean-spirited. but not funny. Like a 12 year old bully. Soany more funny women. She acts like she hates herself and everyone else. Sad

  13. Taylor Swift had every right to deal with her feelings on the situation in whatever manner works for her. If she played it down in interviews but then wrote a touching, heartfelt song of forgiveness, then kudos for her. Taylor Swift is a lady and handled it like a lady. Kanye obviously regrets and is remorseful of his actions. He also did a great job of saying, hey I am a jerk. It was a growing experience for both of them and that is what life is all about. Chelsea had a bad night. I like her alot and watch her show all the time, but this was not a good gig or crowd for her.

    Next time MTV get a host that speaks to that generation–Daniel Tosh of Tosh.0 would be my pick.

  14. Swift did a “showstopping and touching musical performance.” … ??

    Brian, clearly you didnt watch the VMA’s.
    It was like watching a school play that no one else auditioned for and so they just had to make do with what they had. Her perfamance was 3 to 4 minutes of my life that I am sadly never going to get back

    Enough with the Swift gruopie love already.

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